By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Central Bulldogs accomplished another feat in their “For the First Time Since” season by capturing a district championship for the first time since 2009 with a 57-54 victory over Kickapoo in the Class 6 District 5 title game on Tuesday night at Glendale High School.
The top-seeded Bulldogs swept the season series against Kickapoo, having defeated the Chiefs, 60-49, for the first time since 2009 on Jan. 30. But the Bulldogs knew the Chiefs, who were the Class 6 runners-up last season, were going to be ready for this one.
“Mitch (McHenry) is a great coach and Kickapoo’s a great program,” Central head coach Jordan Epps said. “I told the guys before the game, it wasn’t going to be nothing like the first time we played them. This is the district championship. They’re not ready to be done. We’re not ready to be done. I told them, ‘you’re gonna have to win a tough one and a close one,’ and we came down and did that.
“I thought we played a little ugly, but sometimes you got to win ugly to win championships, too. And I’m glad my guys stepped up. Free throws have kind of been a weakness of our team, in general, and they stepped up when it was time to do that.”
After a Jackson Shorter putback pulled the second-seeded Chiefs within a point (52-51) with 1:30 to go in the game, back-to-back Kickapoo fouls put Keion Epps on the line. The junior guard sank them both for a 54-51 Central lead with 45 seconds remaining.
Trevor Wilson grabbed a huge rebound off a Kickapoo miss and sent an outlet pass to senior star Tyrique Brooks, who threw down a dunk that all but punctuated a Bulldogs victory with a 56-51 lead.
Kickapoo senior Jake Sage nailed a 3-pointer from the wing with 9 seconds left to pull the Chiefs within two (56-54). A Devin Sanford free throw put Central up 57-54, and Kickapoo’s attempt at the buzzer to send it to overtime fell short, sending the Bulldogs to the quarterfinal round for the first time since 1999.
“It means a lot,” Coach Epps said of the district title. “I was telling the guys in there, a lot of coaches do go a whole career without having a district championship. And I just told them, ‘Thank you for giving me that.’ Like I said, this was one of our goals we checked off of many this season. These guys are ready to keep pushing and keep it going and getting to see what our limit could be.”
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
And Brooks, in his first and only year with the Bulldogs, is seeing that hard work pay off during this special season.
“It means a lot,” said the Missouri Southern State signee, who led all scorers with 17 points and who scored his 1,500th career point in Central’s previous win over Kickapoo. “It shows all the work that we put in through the fall, winter and all the way up to this point, to be able to win a district championship. That takes a lot of work because there’s a lot of great teams that go to state, and I feel like we played the hardest district this year. Kickapoo, they’re a really tough team, so playing against them you knew it would be tough.
“You know it’s wins like this that we have to complete. And there’s things that we check off. We know that there’s a lot of things that haven’t been done in a while, some things that we need to get done. We just work on it, staying alive and we get it done. As the time moves on, we just check those things off.”
Tuesday night’s matchup definitely had a different feel than the two teams’ first meeting this season.
“I’m extremely proud of them,” Kickapoo head coach Mitch McHenry said of his team. “And this is what we expected. We didn’t feel like we played great the first time we played them, and we played them at their place, in a tough place.
“They played really well and had something to do with us not playing well. The competition in the game is what we expected. We’ve been playing good down the stretch, and that’s what we’ve always wanted to do is play our best basketball down the stretch.
“Unfortunately, it just came down to just executing some plays and hitting some shots. They’re a very dangerous team; they’re a very good team. And our kids did a great job of just competing and putting us in a position to be successful.”
After trailing by nine, midway through the third quarter, the Chiefs chipped away to pull within three (41-38) at the end of the third quarter.
Sophomore Brock Thompson came up big late for the Chiefs, blocking a Central shot toward the end of the third quarter and hitting two big shots that sparked a 9-0 Kickapoo run that led to its first lead since early in the game.
“He’s huge,” McHenry said of Thompson. “And what he’s improved with is he’s improved just being able to play at this level and play out in space. Their big kid, (Bryce) Walker, was in foul trouble a lot, so they were playing five guards a lot. And for him to be able to play in a game on defense and be solid defensively, and then he was just a difference-maker around the basket. He’s very, very good around the basket and he’s got a very good understanding of the game. He was huge for us tonight.”
Huge for the Bulldogs, after Walker fouled out with six minutes left in the game, was Wilson. And his teammates were the first to point out that fact.
“I feel like Trevor Wilson came in and played some good minutes and stepped up and that’s why we won,” said Central junior Rue Wells, who added 16 points. “Bryce (Walker), we’re going to get him right. He’s got to stop jumping at everything. We’ll get him right in that aspect and we’ll be better.”
Brooks added: “Trevor definitely stepped up big time in this game. He came in off the bench and just played against the big guy, Jackson Shorter, and I feel like he kept his composure.”
The Bulldogs have had a historic season with a Gold Division championship in the Blue and Gold Tournament, a seventh-place finish in the Bass Pro Shops Tournament of Champions, and now a district championship. They would also like to reach the final for the first time since making it back-to-back seasons (1962 and 1963).
“It’s definitely one of our main goals on there,” Coach Epps said of the district title. “We’ve kind of just been checking off goals throughout the season and we still have a couple more on our list that we’re hoping to get to. But this is something that’s going to stick with these boys forever. It’s going to stick with Central and the community forever. They’re going to go down, they’re going to be remembered, and that’s going to be special for them.”
Up next for the Bulldogs (23-6) will be Rockhurst (20-7), a 61-51 double-overtime winner over Lee’s Summit West on March 9 at a site to be determined.
“I feel like we’re a good team,” Wells said. “We’re making history and we’re going to have more to come. We’re going to keep playing like a team and keep doing good, but I think we’re going to win it all.”
(1) CENTRAL 57, (2) KICKAPOO 54
Class 6 District 5 Championship
KICKAPOO 14-10-14-16—54
CENTRAL 15-10-16-16—57
KICKAPOO (25-4) – Shaun Campbell 12, Drew Akins 4, Mason Robb 4, Jackson Shorter 11, Reese Kimrey 6, Jake Sage 7, Brock Thompson 10.
CENTRAL (23-6) – Keion Epps 6, Devon Sanford 7, Tyrique Brooks 17, Rue Wells 16, Bryce Walker 2, Jordan Pittman 3, Trevor Wilson 6.